10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
Pastor: Dr. Lester Hutson

All of the material listed herein is the property of the Byron McCartney family, and may not be copied without express written authorization.

The apostle Paul encouraged Timothy, the young pastor of the Ephesian church, to 'endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ' (2 Timothy 2:3). As an officer in the Roman army, and then later as an apostle in the army of God, Paul was uniquely qualified to give Timothy this particular type of encouragement. His testimony of endurance, perseverance and faithfulness to God quantifies his encouragement to everyone of us who know of Paul.

My parents drew much encouragement from Paul's testimony and his writings and could identify with him one more than one level. Not only were they leaders in God's army but they also endured many trials and persecutions during their service to God in Brazil. My father has gone home to be with the Lord and my mother continues to serve God faithfully in The First Baptist Church of West Hollywood, Florida. Volumes could be written about their life together and their work for the Lord but I will limit myself to some of the trials they endured.

No good soldier begins life as a soldier. He/she must be trained and in this country that means boot camp. I believe that for the man who submits to God's leadership in his life to become a pastor or a missionary boot camp begins when he publicly announces his intentions. You may wish to argue the following point but I believe that Satan cannot read minds but only hear what we say and see what we do. When he sees or hears a man commit to the selfless and full time ministry of bringing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and train them to become mature adult Christians he focuses all of his evil attention on that man. The devil also attacks every Christian who is living for the Lord but I believe he reserves his strength for his most vicious attacks on the leaders in God's army: Pastors and missionaries.

My father began his boot camp training when he surrendered to full-time service to God at the age of seventeen. The words of his announcement to his church were still echoing in the ears of his fellow church members when Satan began an insidious and persistent attempt to discourage my father which followed him through most of his service life. My father was an only child and his mother was a very possessive and self-centered woman. When she heard that her son was going to leave her she could only think of her own feelings of loneliness and longing. She put much pressure on my father to reconsider his decision. Later, when my father married she began attacking the character and intentions of his new bride. Her incessant insults of my mother and attempts to dissuade my father from his ministry continued right up until God took her home some 30 years later.

Despite his mother's negative campaign to discourage him, my father enrolled in Bible school and began preparations for going to Brazil as a missionary. During his time there he met and married my mother. Now his mother had two more things to attack: her son's new wife and his decision to go to another country.

It may seem that I am belaboring this relationship but you must realize that it was a form of persecution that pestered, grieved and sometimes discouraged my parents for many years. Every victory in their lives was immediately followed by a renewed attack of jealousy from my grandmother. My parents endured this persecution directed against them and their ministry by my grandmother. Furthermore, to their credit, they never let anyone know this problem existed. We kids only found out the truth after my grandmother and father had passed away.  

After successfully completing their studies and raising support from many churches my parents left the comfort and security of their extended families and their birth country and headed for the unfamiliar land of Brazil with my older sister and me in tow.

Like soldiers arriving on the battlefield my parents, burdened with two infants, arrived in Brazil in the city of Sao Paulo in the state with the same name on July 19, 1953. However, unlike their military counterparts they could not immediately engage the enemy. All the training they had endured up to this point was temporarily useless because of the language barrier. Thus began another period of frustration and possible discouragement. Imagine being surrounded by people who are unknowingly on their way to eternal separation from God and you, having the answer to their salvation, cannot do anything to help them.

So, more training. This time in language school for another year or so. Many missionaries failed at this stage of their training. Some found they could not adjust to another country's culture or for one reason or another simply gave up and headed for home. Others, unable to endure the frustration, quit language school and headed out to win souls and establish churches with a poor and many times inadequate understanding of the people and their language. These half-way trained soldiers suffered the consequences of their impetuosity: troubled relationships with the people they ministered to and constant complaints about their lack of understanding. Then there were the faithful and dedicated few, my parents included, who spent much time and great energy in learning the language and the customs of the people they felt God had sent them to reach for Him. These had great success throughout their ministry and were deeply loved and respected by the Brazilians. My parents endured the frustration and potential ministry ending discouragement of their training.

Finally my parents were fully trained and equipped to serve in God's army. God immediately opened a huge door of service for my father. A very large church with 5 satellite works was looking for an American missionary to take over from their retiring pastor. My father was the exact match they had been praying for and so my father stepped into the pastorate of a very large and successful church. And just as quickly Satan began another campaign of defamation and discouragement which lasted for the rest of my father's life.

Two years after my parents had arrived in Brazil and several months after my father had already been the pastor of the above mentioned church, another missionary had arrived in this same city. My parents helped them get settled in to a home, language school and with any translation help they needed until they were able to speak the language on their own.

However, this missionary allowed his flesh to control his thinking and to dictate his actions. He became jealous of my father's sudden success and spread hurtful lies and rumors of dishonesty and lewd behavior against my father. He continued this behavior up until the day God took him home. There were several times when my father had to leave his work and travel either to the US or to another part of Brazil to answer and to clear up the rumors and allegations. Each time my father was vindicated but in the hearts of some who were close to this other missionary there remained doubts. This type of persecution, from within one's own ranks, is the hardest to endure. But my father did endure. He came close to quitting but never allowed his emotions to rule. He endured.   

It is a great shame that God's people treat each other so poorly. It hurts my heart when my children do not get along, which thank God is very rarely, but oh how much more it must break the great heart of God to see His children cause each other grief and drag the beloved name of the Prince of Peace through the vulgar and sinful mud of human selfishness.

My parents endured hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. They endured the hardships of their several years of training. They endured the persecutions of a selfish relative and a jealous co-laborer. They endured and faithfully served God in Brazil until God took my father home in January of 1983. The churches my father started are still active and are now sending missionaries to this and other countries. The Bible institutes he started are still producing graduates: trained soldiers for God's army. Their ministry continues to this day in that great land of Brazil.

SUMMARY:

If you have the courage and the dedication to give your life to the Lord for His use in His vineyard you will be challenged at every turn by Christ's archenemy: Satan. You will be tempted with discouragement when you are at your weakest. Your character might be attacked by someone close to you or by someone who is on the same side as you. One of your family may fight and try to discredit your every success. One of your own children may even turn against you. Will you endure the hardness for Christ's sake? Will you continue to serve Him faithfully despite what evil comes your way?

To you who wish to endure in His service I give you what Moses gave the children of Israel:

    'Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.' (Deuteronomy 31:6)

NEXT LESSON:

Missionary life is not all hardship though. Remember the missionaries that didn't finish language school? Well, in the next lesson I'll share with you some very funny examples of their troubles with the Portuguese language.

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"